Standing Together While Falling Apart
by findingmymuse
Summary: This is Leah's story. Imprinting was supposed to make everything okay, right? That's what everyone else got, so why is Leah having such a hard time accepting his help when an emotional situation occurs? Love conquers all and all of that jazz, right? But Leah's going to need more than a little imprint magic to get her through this. Luckily, that's exactly what Greg wants to provide.
1. Grief

**Disclaimer: I don't own Leah, God knows no one really does with a spirit like hers, but I did create this story based on Stephanie Meyer's wonderful world that she created. Sidenote, this is ten years after Breaking Dawn.**

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The man paused outside their bedroom, his breath caught in his throat. He could hear her quiet sobs from behind the door. His heart nearly stopped as he thought about the woman he loved being in pain. He almost turned around and headed back to the kitchen but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He raised his arm slowly, his hand bawled up in a fist. He knocked softly before he lost his nerve completely.  
The woman made an attempt to stop her sobs and answered hesitantly, her voice full of grief, confusion, guilt, anger, and strongest of all pain. "Who is it?"  
"Lee-Lee, it's just me." The man answered, using his special name for his wife. When she didn't respond, he tried again a little louder. "Leah, aren't you going to let me in? It's Gregory."  
"I…I don't want to see you. Come back later. I just…I can't right now. Its too soon." Leah said panicky, on the verge of hysterias. Her breathing had quickened in fear, not of her husband but of the fact that he wanted to see her while she looked like this. Her heart wasn't up to being rejected just yet so she figured he should wait until she was healthy again. Not that she was going to tell him any of this. He'd think she was crazy.  
"Leah please don't do this." Greg begged, his eyes filling with tears. "I just need to see that you are okay. Please I promise I will leave you alone, just please…"  
The woman hesitated. On the one hand, she wanted her husband kneeling by her bed whispering sweet nothings in her ear. On the other hand, she wanted him to go as far away as humanly possible-to Pluto maybe?-so that she could deal with this on her own. Since imprinting, she never expected to feel anything but happiness and love like the guys did with their little imprintees. But Leah, of course, was the oddball out. Not that she didn't love Gregory. She did. She completely loved him with all of her soul and would do anything to make him happy...but she had lost a piece of her soul recently and not even Greg's love could make that come back.  
"Please Lee. Everyone was just here and wanting to know that you are okay. I've gotten so many phone calls. People are worried about you. Just let me in and I'll tell them you're fine." Greg pleaded with his wife.  
He could hear her mattress squeaking as she got off their bed and walked to the door. Leah wanted to open the door angrily to show that she didn't need to be coddled like a child but her attempts fell flat when she had to hold onto the wooden frame for support. She cursed under her breath, a habit she'd picked up from her younger brother, Seth and the Pack.  
Greg stared at his wife as he helped her back to bed. Her long black hair was unnaturally frizzy and greasy from not being properly maintained in awhile. Her deep brown eyes had lost the sparkle that used to radiate out of them. He wrapped his arm around Leah and pulled her into a hug before she could protest.  
"I'm fine, see?" Leah spat, removing Greg's arm from around her waist and sat down as far from him as possible. "Now go run along to the family like a good little spy." She said sarcastically, although it was an accurate assumption. The family she was referring to was hers, between the Pack, her mother, and Seth, she had been bombarded with concerned relatives.  
Gregory shook his head. "You know its not like that, Lee. We're all worried about you. You didn't even go to the funeral…"  
"Don't you_ dare_ bring that up!" Leah nearly shouted, although her voice was hoarse so it came out in a raspy, normal talking voice. "She was _my_ baby!" Greg opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. "She might have been _our_ baby but I carried her for nine months. I breastfeed her when you were too busy sleeping. And I was the one who didn't notice that she was sick. So don't you judge blame me for not going to her funeral!"  
"That wasn't your fault, Leah. _None_ of us noticed. I didn't see the signs anymore than you didn't." Greg admitted quietly.  
This was the first time the couple had actually talked about the death of their two month old daughter Hannah. It had started out as nothing more than a simple cold when all of a sudden Hannah's immune system quit fighting off the sickness. There really wasn't anything that anyone could have done; not even the doctors, although Leah seems to think to the otherwise. Even Dr. Cullen, who flew in all the way from New Hampshire where he and Esme relocated once Nessie was of age and moved in with Jacob on the Rez, couldn't save the infant. By the time they got to the hospital with Hannah, there was nothing left of their little girl but a still body.  
The funeral was yesterday and although the baby had only been buried for a day it felt like the whole house had died along with her. Leah went into an immediate depression, blaming herself for the infant's death. She was a wolf for crying out loud! All of the magical mystic powers in the world didn't even seem to be on her side. That was just typical. Becoming a wolf was the worst thing for her: it cost her her father, her first love, her femininity, and twelve years of her life. And now it had cost her Hannah, the little baby that had finally made Leah feel complete. She locked herself into the bedroom, leaving Greg alone in the house by himself. This was the first time he'd been able to get her to speak to him in the four days since Hannah had died.  
"Sweetie, I know you miss her, I do too, but you can't blame yourself for something that wasn't your fault." Gregory spoke softly, slowly putting his arm on Leah's shoulder. She flinched slightly but he refused to let go of her. "She was an unhealthy little baby that got sicker quickly. Even if we had noticed her cold, we wouldn't have been able to react fast enough to get her to a hospital anyways."  
"…just…please just leave me alone Greg." Leah said stubbornly, her eyes showing that she hadn't listened to a word he had said.  
Greg kissed her cheek, sensing that she wasn't ready for anything more intimate, and turned to leave. He paused at the door, looking back at his wife with sadness in his eyes. "I love you Lee-Lee." He said without skipping a beat. It had become a tradition in their house to say 'I love you' whenever they left a room or ended a conversation. It was the one thing that Leah and Greg had that other imprinted couples didn't have. Though every couple showed their love differently, Leah was proud that she and her husband were very verbal in their affection. Or, she used to be.  
Leah turned her head away from him, barely whispering "love you, Greg" loud enough for him to hear.  
Once down the hall and out of her hearing range, Greg punched the wall in the living room. His short fit of rage ended as quickly as it had taken over him and he slid to the floor in defeat. He reached for the phone on the table beside him and pulled it closer to him so he wouldn't have to get up.  
Greg waited a moment before dialing the number. He honestly wasn't sure who he was calling until he heard the gentle, caring voice on the other end of the line. "Hello?" asked a child-like voice, although Greg knew she wasn't a child.  
"Gina its me…your brother." He said reluctantly when she hadn't recognized his voice right away. That's what he deserves after not speaking to her in over eight months. But ever since Leah became pregnant, all he could focus on was his expecting wife. Besides, Gina was so busy with her own life that she probably hadn't even realized that much time had passed anyways.  
"How are you Gregory? Not causing too much trouble are you?" She said with a twinkling laugh, one that had gotten her into too many relationships than either of them could keep track of. Even though they were twins, she seemed to get all of the charm, or so he claimed. Leah usually protested this: "You won me over, didn't you?"  
"You know you've got a family now so you can't be doing all that stupid stuff you did when we were at Washington State." She chastised him lightly. She was talking a mile a minute, not leaving him a chance to get a word in. "I don't want my favorite sister-in-law to come complaining to me about how you are getting into fights or something stupid."  
Gina paused to take a breath and Greg took the free moment to mention why he'd called. "Hannah's dead." He stated sullenly, on the verge of tears for who knows how many times that week.  
"Hannah?" Gina asked, unsure of who her brother was talking about. Hearing his daughter's name said with such confusion in it nearly broke his heart all over again. He wanted _everyone_ to be mourning for their precious little girl. He tried not to get angry about the fact that his own twin didn't share his pain like he would have if the roles were reversed.  
"Your niece. I sent you a picture of the sonograms when Leah was a few months along. She was delivered two months ago and buried yesterday." Greg explained shockingly calm. He seemed to have finally moved out of the anger stage, his wife stuck somewhere between isolation and anger still. "Remember how excited I was? Leah and I had been trying for four years to get pregnant...and then Hannah was taken away from us as soon as we got her."  
"Oh Greg…I had no idea." She said melancholy. "I…I would've come and seen you if you'd told me sooner. I could've made it to the funeral." Gina said unconvincingly. They both knew that her husband, Rob, would never have allowed it. Gina is a model and is constantly being flown from one city to the next to walk on a near identical ten foot catwalk. If it weren't for her insane beauty and thin frame, she would have been able to quit and eventually divorce Rob but that was far from likely. At twenty-nine, she was more talented than the eighteen year olds signed by her agency.  
"How are you guys holding up?" Gina asked when Greg made no notice of wanting to comment on her lie. "How's Leah?"  
"We're managing. Me better than she is. I don't know what to do anymore, Gin, I honestly don't." He admitted timidly. "She won't eat, hasn't slept at all in the past week, and I only got her to speak to me today because I tricked her into opening the door." Greg described the scene of the house as if he were talking about the latest sports game. His emotions had been changing so quickly that he was almost glad that he felt numb now.  
"…is there anything I can do?" Gina asked truly concerned. "I know that I haven't always been there for you Greg, but you are still my twin. If there's anything you need of me, just ask." She seemed to be talking literally and Greg racked his brain to think of anything besides her by his side that he needed.  
As if reading his mind, she commented. "I'd be more than happy to hop on a plane right now. Screw my career. I'm the best model the agency has." A plan was forming in her head as she spoke. "I think I'm due for some sick days. Twelve years as a model and not one day off, they owe me this." She said stubbornly.  
It was times like this that Greg was grateful for their twin telepathy. Even though it would get her in trouble at work, he needed desperately for his sister to be with him. She was the only family besides Leah that he had left. His parents, both only children, had died when the twins were seventeen and legally old enough to get emancipated.

And although Leah's wolf family had extended their open arms, he knew that his wife didn't want their help. Because with their help came their pity. "Oh, poor Leah, first she turned into a wolf and killed her father...and now her imprint can't even produce a healthy child. Why, even Jacob and Nessie have a small litter of pups, and she's a half-vampire." Yeah, there was no way that Greg was going to put Leah through that unless she wanted to. Even though as a wolf she was supposed to be his protector, he always did his best to be that for her.  
"Thank you, Gin." Gregory said gratefully. "You don't know how much this would mean to me. And I'm sure that having you around the house will cheer Leah up a bit. You always were one of her best friends."  
"Listen Greg. I gotta go now, big shoot in a few minutes, but I'll fly out of Chicago as soon as I can." Gina commented. "Oh, and try to keep Leah's spirits up. Once she sets into the depression you probably won't be able to get her out of her mood for awhile and that's not healthy for either of you."  
Long after Gina hit 'end' Greg made no motion that their conversation had ended. He stayed in his position on the floor, his hand pressing the receiver to his ear. Some time later-how long had it been? minutes? hours?-Greg seemed to snap out of his almost comatose state. His stomach rumbled, reminding him that it was near dinner time.  
Greg headed to the kitchen, not bothering to flip the light switch on as he stumbled towards the fridge. The light from the refrigerator illuminated the whole room with a soft yellow glow. Greg paused and looked around the room, it almost felt happy in here or at least peaceful. He wondered how long it would be until Leah was able to get over this. Greg shook his head at himself. If he was being honest, he would admit that losing Hannah had changed everything. His once happy, loving wife was gone forever.


	2. A Little Help

"Gina, thank God you're here." Greg let out a small sigh of relief when he saw his twin standing in the doorway the next morning. He was a little shocked that she really had gotten on a plane from Chicago this morning after her shoot last night. Gina wasn't exactly what Greg would call reliable. Actually, she was a bit flakey all of the time. That was probably why the last time he had spoken to her was eight months ago and the last time that they actually saw each other in person was four years ago at Leah and Greg's wedding. To see her now was unbelievable.

Gina, as always, looked gorgeous. Her hair was pinned up in leftover curls from the shoot last night. Even with the long plane ride and the fact that it was barely eight in the morning, Gina looked paparazzi ready. Not that there would be any photographers this far northwest, other than the occasional landscape photographer. There was just no need for fame out here. The most scandalous things were always hidden quickly in Forks: baby bumps after prom, eating disorders, or scandals with gritty sex tapes that got leaked. But that was why Greg loved living here with Leah. It was so peaceful here.

"Is she any better this morning?" Gina asked, stepping into the room and giving her twin a hug. The shewolf was usually happy to greet Gina, though it had been years since they had actually seen each other. Not that the long time spans between visits made the two any less of friends. Leah and Gina were instantly friends from the moment that Greg brought Leah home to meet his one and only living family member all those years ago.

Not that Gina knew about the werewolf shapeshifter thing, though. How could she? The Pack was so hush-hush about their secrets that even after a year of dating Greg, she hadn't felt comfortable telling him about what she could do. There are some fears that even an imprint bond can't vanquish. It took Leah a long time to open up to Gregory Greene. Leah wished that she could open up equally to Gina but that was one privilege that the Council wouldn't allow.

"She's holding up." Greg sighed. "Well, she's holed up, at least. I just don't know how to help her anymore, Gin. I've called her brother Seth but every time he comes to visit, she shuts him out. He was here yesterday morning, actually."

"What makes you think that I'll be able to help her, then?" Gina interrupted.

"I have to try everything." Gregory was careful to chose his words perfectly. "Leah needs someone who understands what she's going through..."

"No, Greg, no, no." Gina shook her head. "I can't talk about that. Please! It was a mistake to come here..." She tried to grab the door handle again but her twin stopped her.

He looked at Gina with pleading eyes. "Please, Gin. I can't lose Leah to this sadness. Not after seeing what I did to you. I'm desperate! I know we promised to never bring it up again but I need my Leah back and I can't bring her back on my own."

Gina closed her eyes and took three long breaths to calm her nerves. She hadn't been expecting this request from her brother, though she supposed that she probably should have. It was exactly what Leah needed.

"You owe me. Big." Gina slowly opened her eyes. All of the life was drained from her baby blues. For a moment, Greg was afraid that in asking his twin this favor that he had brought both of the most important women in his life.

"I'll do anything. Just please try to help my wife." Greg begged, knowing that Gina was just the person to get through to Leah.

His twin nodded, though she was already focused on the mission at hand. It was best to keep feelings out of it when she thought about that memory, but for the first time in ten years, she let herself dwell on the pain. Leah was feeling, so she would have to feel, too. At least for a while.

She left her brother standing in the living room and headed towards where she suspected the bedroom was. In an apartment this size, there was only two doors in the hallway and one was open to show the bathroom. Gina knocked on the bedroom door and waited.

"Go away, Greg!" Leah was angry again. Good, Gina thought, better anger than depression.

"Leah, it's Gina." A moment passed and there came a muffled 'humph' from the other side of the door.

"Of course he'd send you." Leah rolled her eyes though Gina couldn't see it. She opened the door for her sister-in-law and scowled. "I think he thinks that if enough people come to visit me that I'll have to feel better." Leah stared down the hallway where her imprint stood. When he took a step closer, she panicked and pushed Gina into their bedroom so that she could lock the door back up. Safely confined to her room, Leah relaxed a little bit.

She just couldn't look at the sadness in Greg's eyes lately.

Hannah had had his eyes.

"He's trying, at least." Gina said honestly. "You know that he loves you?"

"Of course I know that!" Leah snapped automatically, defensive that anyone would doubt their imprint bond whether they knew about the imprint bond or not. Leah didn't like the accidental accusation.

"Shh. I didn't mean to upset you." Gina took a deep breath. Greg wasn't lying about how bad it had gotten with Leah. She wished that she had been a better sister-in-law and known about all of this months ago. Gina kicked herself now for ignoring her brother's phone calls until now.

"I'm okay, really." Leah tried to put on her best poker face. It would have worked if she hadn't been looking at another broken woman.

"No." Gina whispered, feeling the pain of the past already overpowering her. "No, you're not okay."

There was a silence that fell over the room as the hurt in Gina's voice magnified to Leah's sensitive ears. For Gina, it was just a memory haunting her. For Leah, the ghost was still here in the house.

"I bet that you didn't know that I had been pregnant myself once." Gina's voice was once again numb, all facts-that was the only way she could get through this.

"You miscarried?" Leah was hesitant to ask.

Gina shook her head. "I carried him to full term. The delivery was rough...too rough...his little neck wrapped around his umbilical cord and he choked before he even took his first real breath of life. The doctors made me deliver him anyways even though it was too late to save him. But I knew going into it that he was already gone. Nine months of falling in love with another human being and I didn't even get to hold him in my arms or feel his breath on my face or see his little eyes open."

"Oh, Gina, I'm so sorry!" Leah hated to admit it but she felt better about her situation after hearing Gina's story. It was so wrong, she knew, she wasn't a monster, she knew it was wrong to feel this way but still she cherished the two months she had had with Hannah all the more now. At least Leah had been able to see her child alive and healthy for a tiny bit of time. Gina had none of that comfort.

"It's been ten years this June." Gina looked at the clock on the wall even though there was not a calender there. Her eyes were looking past it anyways, her mind on a memory long ago. "I just say that to let you know that you will be able to move on with you life. The awful things that have happened stay with you, but you will not always feel the pain so deeply. It will get better...but you will always carry her with you. That kind of love doesn't go away because of a coffin."

"Your son, what was his name?" Leah had to know. Gina's dead baby would have been Hannah's cousin. It didn't seem fair that the Greene's couldn't keep their children alive. God had a sick sense of humor to give them children only to take them away from them.

"Elijah." Gina let a few tears roll down her cheeks as she said her baby's name for the first time in over eight years. "Elijah Joesph Greene."

"That's a beautiful name." Leah commented.

She handed Gina a tissue and watched as her model sister cried off all of her makeup. It broke Leah's own heart to see such a strong woman breaking down like this. She wondered for a moment if this was how her imprint felt when looking at her own breakdown but Leah wasn't strong-only hard and bitter from a lifetime of pain. Of course, Greg saw her as strong. But she wasn't. Not then and certainly not now.

When Hannah first died, five short days ago, Leah felt her heart break so deeply that she didn't feel Greg's imprint bond. She felt it now, of course, but in those first few hours, it was only Hannah that she felt. Her bond, though disconnected, with Hannah was that strong that even Quiluite magic couldn't fight it. It was ironic that Leah felt such deep sorrow for her lost little girl considering motherhood was always the last thing on her mind. Greg had been the one who wanted children. But once she had felt her baby growing inside of her stomach, Leah couldn't imagine her life without a child. Now she would never have it.

Gina rubbed her runny nose, stopping a line of snot from touching her upper lip. "You know, I haven't talked about Eli in so long. No one understands what I've been through. I made Greg swear not to ever bring him up and God knows that Rob wouldn't. Sometimes I think that if it weren't for the pain in my soul that I wouldn't remember him at all." Gina's bright blue eyes looked breathtaking with tears in them. "Isn't that awful? I nearly forgot about my own child."

"I wish that I could forget about the pain of losing Hannah." Leah whispered, closing her eyes. She pictured her giggling little baby-no teeth, all gums-grinning up at her parents as they took her to the park for the first time...and the last. What a difference a week made!

"In time it will get better." Gina promised weakly. "You have a kind husband who would do anything for you. He'd give up his own happiness for you, I can see that in the way that he looks at you or talks about you. He is grieving not only for your daughter but also for you. You're lucky to have a family support system, too. From what Greg said, you have more visitors than you want. But at least it means that they care about you and are worried for you. I had no one by my side besides Greg."

"What about the baby's father?" Leah asked. She knew that her sister-in-law had been involved with Rob long before they got married two years ago. The shewolf had only met Robert Viper once but he had been on the phone the entire visit that Leah and Greg visited Chicago. He was a big shot agent and he never let anyone forget it.

"Rob bailed as soon as he found out that the condom broke. We were nineteen and my modeling career had only just begun. I had potential like nobody's business. That's why he loved me in the beginning, I suppose." Gina swallowed hard. "He came over about a month later with enough money for an abortion. He told me that he loved me but that he wasn't ready for a child. That if I knew what was best for me that I wouldn't want to keep it either."

Leah couldn't help but growl. He had seemed distant and cold when she met him, but Leah couldn't imagine anyone being that cruel. It was a human being, not an unwanted toy you could just throw away. She was born to protect human life. Even without phasing in almost a year so that she wouldn't hurt Hannah as she gre, Leah could still feel the instinctive pulse to save lives. That was probably why Embry had become a doctor when he quit the Pack a few years ago. Because even without the connection to the Pack, that feeling never goes away.

"But you took him back?" Leah asked astonished. If this happened ten years ago and Leah knew that Rob and Gina had been dating since she met Greg six years ago then she probably had accepted him back into her life right after Elijah died. Imprint bond or not, Leah couldn't take someone back who had wanted to murder her baby.

"Without Eli, I had no one. I felt so broken and lonely and afraid." Gina's eyes watered a little more. "Rob loved me as much as he could, I knew that. And he was helpful in advancing my career. Once I felt like motherhood was a cruel joke for me, I needed my career to focus on and I was grateful for the support. I was young and pretty and my stretch marks were easily removed with very expensive surgery. I was wanted in the modeling world and by Rob. I need to be wanted."

"What about when you retire?" Leah asked. "Models don't have a very long shelf life and you've already been at it for twelve years. Do you really think that Rob will want a family then?"

"Honestly, I don't know." Gina took a deep breath. "I'm not even sure that I want a family either, not after all of the pain that I've been through and seeing you struggling like this, too."

"Don't worry about me." Leah spoke up. "I'll be fine, isn't that what everyone keeps telling me-what I keep telling myself?"

"Of course you will!" Gina was all the more willing to comfort her sister-in-law, knowing how much she had needed to be reassured of that fact ten years ago. But she didn't have the support system that Leah did. "You'll heal and maybe one day you'll be telling your other children about their angel sister up in Heaven and how much you love her."

"I don't think that I'm meant to have children." Leah confided, ashamed of her confession. She didn't add that the reason she didn't think she could have children was because she shapeshifted into a giant wolf all of the time.

"Oh, don't say that. Greg said that she got sick. Babies get sick all of the time. There wasn't anything wrong with Hannah other than a weak immune system. Not every child you have will be the same." Gina said confidently. "I know that you will be a mother again one day. I believe that, Leah, because I've seen the way that you were with those kids at your wedding. Your little flower girl loved you."

"That was my niece Emilia. She's a sweetheart." Leah thought about Sam and Emily's little girl who was now close to eight. _They_ had managed to have four healthy girls over the years. Jared and Kim had two sons. Paul and Rachel had one of each. Even freakin' Nessie and Jake had had three kids in the four years that they had been married themselves. The only Pack member who hadn't reproduced yet was unimprinted Embry and her equally as unimprinted brother Seth. Oh, and Quil who's imprint Claire was just thirteen.

"See? You interact with kids so naturally that I cannot believe that you won't be a mother again one day." Gina smiled, finally feeling a bit better about her own situation. Maybe she wouldn't have children herself, not while she was still with Rob, but at least she could see her nieces and nephews grow up...all it would take would be convincing Leah not to give up too quickly.

"If I'm not allowed to rule myself out, then neither are you." Leah said sternly. "That's the deal, take it or leave it. Either we both accept that our chances aren't over and help each other to cope with the loss we already have OR we both give up and let this rule our lives."

"That's the Leah I remember." Gina was grinning for real now. She could see that her sister was coming back to life. Though it would still be tough and it would not automatically be easier now that Leah had accepted help, it would get better one day. And that was all that mattered.

"What can I say?" Leah let a faint smile of her own cross her lips. It was the first hint of a smile in the week since Hannah got sick and died. "I'm a fighter."


End file.
